Reel

A reel mounts under or beside the gun and holds 30 to 50 m of line tied to the shaft. When a fish is hit and runs, or dives into a hole, the reel pays out line under a drag instead of the diver being pulled after the fish or the gun being torn from the hand. The diver surfaces, breathes, and then recovers the fish by winding in.

The alternative is a float line to a buoy at the surface. On open rock in surge, where a float line snags on everything and drags the diver about, a reel is freedom. In blue water, with big fish that run far, a float is safer. Many divers use both: the reel on the gun, and a short line from the gun to the float.

What matters:

• Capacity: 30 m is enough for rock work at 10 to 15 m; 50 m for deeper walls. More line than that on a rock gun is weight and tangles.
• Drag: a clutch you can adjust with a gloved hand, that pays out smoothly under a running fish and does not lock. A drag that locks means a lost gun.
• Line: dyneema of 1.5 to 2 mm, strong for its diameter and thin enough to wind. Nylon is cheaper and bulkier.
• Winding: a handle that turns freely and a spool that does not bird-nest. Vertical reels are compact and wind slowly; horizontal reels hold more and wind faster.
• Mounting: on the gun's handle, solid, with no play. A reel that wobbles is a reel that jams.
• Line release: a clip or a spring at the muzzle that holds the line tight along the barrel and releases it cleanly on the shot.

Plastic reels are cheap and fine for a start; aluminium reels last. A reel on a short rock gun changes the balance very little; on a long gun it adds noticeable weight at the handle.

Capacity to depth: 30 m for the surge and the first line of rock, 50 m for walls and deeper. Set the drag so that a hard pull by hand takes line with effort; adjust in the water on the first fish, not the first big one.

Rinse under running water with the drag loosened, wind the line out and back in wet every few sessions so that it does not set, and check the last two metres at the shaft for wear: that is where it frays and where a fish is lost. Replace the line when it goes fuzzy.